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ADAMS, Mass. – The town has received 13 responses to a request to design and supervise building a estimated $5-million, 11,000-square-foot outdoor skiing and education center at the Greylock Glen.

It’s a crucial next step in a decades-long effort to jump-start a $53-million cultural and eco-tourism education and entertainment center on the 1,064-acre public parcel abutting the Appalachian Trail and the state's highest peak — and largest public park.

Eleven of the 13 architectural and design firms are from Massachusetts, with one each from Vermont and Connecticut. “Thirteen firms is a nice response,” said Jean Rice, community-development specialist for the town.

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Audubon Society confirmed it is watching the project with interest in possibly stepping forward to manage programs at the education center if it is built. “We want very much to be a player when it comes to the Environmental Education/Nordic Ski Center,” Gail Yeo, vice president of wildlife sanctuaries and programs, said by email.

Some 10 other firms downloaded the RFP but did not submit. The town asked for expertise in “design of green building technologies.” The RFP said a successful bidder would do schematic design, consruction designs and would supervise construction.

The disclosure comes six weeks after North Adams artist, architect and “green-industry” entrepreneur Ralph Brill submitted a 140-acre campground proposal for “Hobbit-style” sleeping huts and rustic cabins and said he wanted to combine it with hostel-style lodging and virtual-reality training facility in the vacant Adams Memorial Middle School. Adams officials are now mulling his proposal.

Audubon, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA), the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA) and the Appalachian Mountain Club all helped the town over the last several years to develop a comprehensive recreation-tourism-education plan for the Glen.

The 14-page RFP issued Dec. 21 by the town does not provide any estimate of the likely total cost of the education center, but it speaks about an intention that any respondent plan on helping the town to raise funds for costs excess of the $5 million -- before any detailed architectural drawings are created. It says the town will work “to secure construction funding for the proposed facility.”

With 13 proposals in hand, the next step is for the town’s Designer Selection Committee to sift through them.

The campground and education center comprise the first two pieces of the Glen project; the third would be an amphitheater and, ultimately, a 170-room lodge-style hotel. Only the education center is slated to be built in whole or part with public funds, but state money has already extended water, sewer and utility infrastructure to the sites, and put permits in place.

The RFP sent out in December described a “green” building including exhibit space, a media room, four classrooms, and an indoor-outdoor cafeteria. it’s not clear how much of the design and construction would be covered by that figure.

The multi-use building would include space for a private-venture Nordic skiing operation, plus spaces for exhibits and a potential MCLA “field station” for its environmental-studies program. There would be parking for 100 cars.

In keeping with its intention to be a key partner with Glen developers and operators, the town’s RFP says it will “develop the final program scope and budget for the outdoor-center project in conjnction with the selected design consultant team using the design concept and other supporting materials created during schematic design phase and beyond.” The town’s RFP says utilities and all state and local permits are in place.

One anticipated funding is in place, the RFP says, the town would authorize its consultants to prepare full construction plans, specifications and public-bidding documents.

February 13, 2017

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Without taking a formal vote, Williamstown selectmen on Monday endorsed an already-submitted request for a regional study of broadband fiber-optic options among Berkshire County cities and towns already served by the Spectrum-Charter Communications cable giant. Meanwhile, state officials were preparing to unveil and take testimony from towns in Windsor on Thursday about proposals to build fiber networks in hill and smaller towns that have no broadband at all.LINK: READ MORE AT GREYLOCK INDEPENDENT.The MassBroadband unveiling of six proposals to provide broadband service to underserved towns is the subject of a public hearing — starting at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16 at the Worthington Town Hall and running for as long as it takes to get through testimony from town officials and other testimony — up to as late as 6 p.m.RELATED LINKS:

ADAMS, Mass. -- The town is evaluating a lone proposal received by last week's deadline for the first-phase development of the Greylock Glen.

North Adams artist, architect and "green-industry" entrepreneur Ralph Brill submitted a proposal by the town's Dec. 15 deadline and Adams Community Development Director Donna Cesan says the proposal will be "carefully reviewed." She said selectmen would probably be involved and that it is likely there will be meetings with Brill to understand his proposal. Ceasan declined for the moment to make the proposal public. Cesan also says the town hopes this week to issue a Request for Proposals for Phase Two of the Greylock Glen -- a public-private education center. The Massachusetts Audubon Society has express interest in that phase.

Brill, in turn, said he would respect the town's desire not to make his proposal public at the moment. He said he will only proceed if the town wants to participate in a broad partnership with the aim of turning the town's economy in a new direction.

"I"m talking about economic development and turning the town around," said Brill. "It is not going to happen on the back of a napkin. But in the end the town would have something like MassMoCA, and that is the risk -- and the rewards."

He discussed his ideas generally, saying they may not be exactly what the town was seeking, which he said was basically a private operator for a two-plot seasonal campground on the Glen parcel. Instead, Brill said his proposal includes the following features:

Creation of one camp area consisting of "Hobbit-style" sleeping huts, and a second camp area consisting of rustic cabins, both able to be occupied nearly year round. He is thinking of ways to theme the camping area to both J.K. Rowling's designation of Mount Greylock as a fictional headquarters of North American witchcraft, as well as to be compatible with the interests of hiking, mountain biking and art enthusiasts.

Use of a substantial of the vacant Adams Memorial Middle School building, particularly its large gymnasium, for hostel-style lodging and as a training and recreational facility for virtual-reality technology, and to support "geo-caching" games on the Greylock Glen parcel.

Contracting with property owners along Park Street in Adams for a series of hiking- and bicycling-themed businesses that would support the interests of travelers to the Greylock Glen, and also highlight Adams native Susan B. Anthony's record as a major promoting of women riding bicycles.

An education component, support a "Forest Kindergarden" school similar to hundreds operating in Scandinavia and northern Europe, as well as in Saratoga Springs, N.Y, The school would use the Glen as a learning environment for young children -- a feature that he thinks might appeal to the Massachusetts Audubon Society, which is interested in Phase 2 of the Glen project -- an education center.

DISCLOSURE: The author of this post accompanied Mr Brill to a discussion with Adams Town Planner Ceasan in November after Brill reacted to an October blog post about the Glen opportunity, and also walked the Greylock Glen property with Brill, land planner Harry Dodson and mountain-biking enthusiast Heather Linscott. The author has no involvement or economic interest in Brill's proposal or Brill's businesses.

December 16, 2016

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The town could lose a 32,500-square-foot commercial office building, and gain a 95-room chain hotel, if a proposal before the Zoning Board of Appeals is approved in mid-January.

A motel owner worried about competition -- and neighbors worried about peeping toms, noise and flooding -- brought their concerns before the Williamstown Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday as it began considering whether to approve a three-story, 95-room, 53,000-square-foot chain hotel on State Road (Route 2).

“Those hotel rooms are going to be looking into my home,” said abutting neighbor Cathy Johnson.

Navin Shah

Experts hired by Navin Shah, of Lenox, who owns four chain hotels in southern Berkshire County and Sturbridge, Mass., presented his $12-million proposal in a two-hour hearing before the board, which set 2 p.m. on Dec. 28 to visit the site, behind the Cumberland Farms where a Grand Union supermarket was once located.

Shah needs a series of special permits for arrangements that would not conform to the town’s zoning bylaw. However, a hotel is a permitted use in the business district. Neighbors greatest concern seemed to be that Zoning Board members felt they were obliged to continue non-conforming aspects of the current 32,500-square-foot office building, even though that building will be razed and the use changed.

Clapping erupted at one point in the hearing, when Kjell Truedsson, owner of the Maple Terrace Hotel, also on State Road, expressed concern for his livelihood should a 95-room competitor open about 1,000 feet down the road. He said Williamstown now has 406 hotel rooms, nine B&Bs and 100 AirBnBs.

“The marketing of that hotel can only be by taking tourists, school visitors from the smaller operators and I thought that the community we have served for a long time would protect us to some extent from implementing chain hotels in the Village Beautiful,” said Truesdsson, who has owned the Maple Terrace for 20 years. “And I wonder if this forum can address this and I would appreciate hearing something of that.”

Architect Ann K. McCallum said the building would have a brick façade, intended to look like a factory, rather than a typical chain hotel. She said the idea was to harken to Williamstown’s heritage as a town with brick factories and academic buildings. McCallum also described plans for a short hiking and jogging trail in the residentially-zoned rear portion of the property, and removal of some trees to improve mountain views for hotel patrons.

To clear the hotel development at its Jan. 19 meeting, the ZBA will have to issue special permits for a hotel which exceeds a floor-area threshold of 20,000 square feet, for alteration of preexisting non-conforming impervious surface coverage, for location of a retention basis in the residential zone, and for some nonconforming parking. Neighbors also asked that the project be required to complete an environmental-impact assessment.

November 16, 2016

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Williams College is conducting four days worth of soil sampling at a potential Water Street site for a $65-million art-museum complex. However the town, which gave permission for the drilling, says it is not a precursor for any particular project.

Dustin Humphrey, a geo-technical engineer for a Springfield, Mass.-based speciality geoenvironmental engineering firm said on Wednesday that his firm had been retained by Williams to do the work. They were on site with a drill rig that has an eight-inch, hole-drilling auger that can take soil samples above bedrock. He said work by O'Reilly, Talbot & Okun would continue for two more days.

Town Manager Jason Hoch said the town gave permission for the college to hire the sampling work on the town's property. "There more we all know about what is underneath the better," he said, adding that the town has had other testing and work done over the years at the site, and Williams has agreed to share with the town what it learns from the new borings.

"There are a handful of things in play now so I can't say this is a precursor for a particular project," added Hoch. "We've talked about a variety of potential uses on that site, obviously there has been talk in the past about buildings." The college also has in mind some possible stormwater improvements, Hoch said.

The truck is at the former site of the town's municipal-equipment garage, which was razed and the site is now a gravel parking lot, owned by the town, which abuts Williams property on two sides, including the Spencer Art Building. The town has permitted various uses on the site since the building was removed.

May 19, 2016

(A pink voting card from town meeting: Should the town moderator vote?)

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- A former member of the Williamstown Planning Board has emailed Town Moderator Adam Filson, and selectmen, asserting a "clear pattern of bias" in the conduct of Tuesday's town meeting. The email, (VIEW TEXT) which is a public record, says Filson was seen holding his pink voting card in favor of a controversial zoning matter, which email author Patrick Dunlavey says should only occur when a moderator's vote is necessary to break a tie.

Filson is general counsel to The Fairbank Group at Jiminy Peak, a Hancock-based resort and renewable-energy developer.

Dunlavey's email says the moderator "repeatedly interrupted" planning board member Ann McCallum as she was attempting to explain a proposed amendment she was offering to Article 35, which allows for the construction of a 120-room hotel on up to 10 acres of the 203-acre Waubeeka Golf Links property in South Williamstown. His interruptions, Dunlavey said, "completely rattled her, leaving her to gfrantically figure out what to say and what to leave out." Dunlavey continues: "She was booed by some yahoos in the audience, but instead of sternly correcting the offenders and granting Ms. McCallum extra time, you urged her to wrap it up."

Filson replied by email to GreylockNews.com: "For the official town record, it was my determination that the specific statements I ruled Ms. McCallum out of order on were attacks against the person and not attacks against the petitioner’s argument. I noticed no personal attacks in Mr. Parese’s statements and found those to be against the argument."

Dunlavey's email said that, in his opinion, Filson "did not apply these same standards to Stan Parese, (lawyer for Waubeeka public owner Michael Deep), "who seemed to have a microphone whenever he watned, for as long as he wantd it, to ay whatever he wanted to say, in whateveer tone he wanted to use."

Dunlavey's email aslso notes that the moderator allows a revote on two out of four clauses of a Parese-requested amendment to the zoning change immediately after town meeting had just voted to approve all four clauses. "Town counsel did not opinion on whether you should permit the re-vote, just whether as moderator it was in your right to do so."

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- A future developer of a 120-unit "country inn" at the Waubeeka Golf Links would be able to locate the lodging buildings deep into the course -- say, in the driving range -- at least a thousand feet off U.S. Route 7, if Town Meeting voters approve on Tuesday either proposals to give new zoning flexibility to owner Michael Deep.

The option to site the lodging facility in the driving range is possible because of a key word used in both the "Acreage Amendment" recommended by selectmen as well as the "Square Footage" (or Gardner) amendment recommended by the Planning Board. Each allow a developer to designate a 10-acre piece of the 203-acre golf-course site as an "Building Envelope." The piece for lodging construction has to be a single piece, and some of it has to include a 2.5-acre parcel in the northeast corner of Waubeeka, alongside New Ashford Road (Route 7). But the rest of the building area can be anywhere on the property so long as it reaches into the northeast corner -- in language of the amendments -- is "contiguous" or touching the northeast quadrant.

Stan Parese, attorney for owner Mike Deep, has emphasized in presentations the potential for up-to-three-story lodging buildings in the northeast corner of the site because it is 5-10 feet below the grade of Route 7, and in theory less obtrusive. Concept plans drawn by architect David Westall show the northeast-corner site. An alternate location on the golf course has not come up recently in public. Other portions of the property -- such as the driving range -- would be 20 or 30 feet above Route 7, and thus potentially more visible to it, but also farther away from passing cars. At a higher elevation, views for guests could also be more spectacular.

The alternate site was first noted in a blog post on GreylockNews.com by a part-time Williamstown resident who did not want his name used because he does not want to inject himself into the discussion of the future of Waubeeka. The resident -- who has computer skills -- usedGoogle Maps to illustrate the driving-range site (above). In a follow-up email exchange, the part-time resident said:

" . . . I think the acreage-controlled draft will result in a hotel going in on the current driving range. The 10-acre limit includes both the hotel envelope and whatever buildings/parking are needed for the golf operations. The current size of the golf operations is about two acres, which leaves 8 acres to work with somewhere on the property. The driving range is about that size. As a comparison, the Berkshire Mountain Lodge (a 146-unit timeshare property in Pittsfield) takes up about six acres. The (126-room) Williams Inn is about three acres. The Clark is about 20 acres. I think those comparisons help give a picture of what 10 acres would produce.

HUGE WINDFALL FOR DEEP?

" . . . My other point is that by providing this overlay, the Town is giving Mike Deep a huge windfall for the value of that property. Waubeeka is worth a lot more with the ability to build a hotel than it currently is today. There's nothing stopping him from selling the whole facility once the overlay goes through, and I suspect that that is exactly what he'll do. That's speculation on my part, but it's worth considering because no matter what the feeling in town about Mike Deep or Waubeeka, the simple truth of the matter is that ownership of that property can change in a heartbeat."

As Williamstown voters prepared for Tuesday's town-meeting vote on the Waubeeka rezoning, there were these developments:

A Williams College official replied to a query from GreylockNews.com, asking the school to comment on worries that its employees might feel concern at town meeting in voting contrary to the college's interests or positions. Said James Kolesar, a college spokesman: " . . . [C]olleges, including Williams, are by no means in short supply of public criticism from their employees, and that's how it should be." Williams is appealing to voters to approve an up-to-100-room hotel it proposes for the bottom of Spring Street, to replace the Williams Inn, which would be razed.

The Planning Board declared on a 5-0 vote that it finds no evidence of an Open Meeting Act violation in its deliberations leading up to a 3-2 approval of the so-called “Gardner amendment” proposing a 60,000-square-foot limitation on the size of a Waubeeka lodging development. The response was to an allegation its deliberations were improper. The claim was made by Williamstown resident David Leja in a letter received by the town on May 9 – they day before Gardner lost in a bid to be elected to the Planning Board.

Thousands of Williamstown residents appeared to have received a postal mailing from Waubeeka Golf Links appealing for support at Town Meeting for its zoning amendment. The mailing does not say what will be developed if the zoning is approved and makes statements about tax benefits that have been disputed by opponents.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- A town resident on May 9 filed a complaint with the town alleging a “possible Open Meeting Law violation” by three members of the Planning Board. On May 16, the Planning Board voted, 5-0, to send a letter to the complainant, David Legaj, saying no violation occurred.

The Open Meeting Act complaint also alleges bias by the board in favor of Williams College, and seeks the overturning of a May 4 board vote that went against developer Michael Deep. The three members each said they were unaware of any violations and that they follow the law.

There were these additional developments on May 9:

Selectmen voted 4-1 to reject the advice of the Planning Board on Michael Deep's proposed 120 "unit" hotel zoning change at Waubeeka Golf Links. Selectmen agreed that the hotel building sought by Deep should not have its square-footage size restricted. The Planning Board recommends a limit of 60,000 square feet, roughly between the size of the Williams Inn and The Orchards. Voters must resolve the conflicting advice at the May 17 town meeting or table the matter. (LISTEN TO AUDIO OF THE MEETING) | READ TRANSCRIPT OF MEETING df

The Finance Committee voted unanimously not to take any position on the Waubeeka proposal after hearing economic arguments for it from Deep's attorney, Stanley Parese.

The Open Meeting Act complaint dated as of Sunday and signed by David M. Leja, who gave his address as 141 Luce Road, Williamstown, was received by the town on Monday. Under the state Open Meeting Act, a board that is the subject of such a complaint has 14 days to respond. Messages left on a voice-mail machine at the phone number listed on Leja's complaint were not immediately answered. The Berkshire Eagle reported that Leja said he filed the complaint at the urging of others because the "the orchestration of the 'Gardner amendment' is problematic to many people in town because it has the appearance of a backroom deal." He reportedly said he hoped his complaint would "clear the air."

Town Manager Jason Hoch acknowledged receipt of the complaint and said he personally "have not seen any electronic correspondence on which I have also been copied that had more than two members of the Planning Board." Amy Jeschawitz, the board’s chair, did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

Leja’s complaint consists of an approximately 300-word narrative beginning: “I believe an intentional violation of the Open Meeting Law occurred.” It goes on to allege that Planning Board members Sarah Gardner, Ann McCallum and Elizabeth McGowan met at unspecified times, “in person or electronically.” The complaint provides narrative assertions about outside-of-meeting activities, but cites no specific date or time of any open-meeting violation other than the period between the board's April 28 and May 4 meetings.

It alleges the unspecified alleged meetings involving "working with a group of individuals including an abutter attorney" in order to co-author a proposal – adopted 3-2 by the board on May 4 – to recommend a zoning change for a 50,000-60,000-foot hotel at the Waubeeka Golf Links. The complaint seeks to have that vote rescinded, if Open Meeting Act violations took place.

Sarah Gardner and Ann McCallum, who called GreylockNews.com with information about the complaint, said no violations occurred; that they are aware of the law, which generally forbids outside-of-meeting collaborations by a majority of a public body. In the case of the Planning Board, that would mean two members could meet, but not three.

Gardner called the open-meeting violation "completely absurd." She said that while she and McCallum have met outside of meetings, McGowan was not involved in such meetings.

McGowan also told GreylockNews.com she was not personally aware of any open-meeting law violations and has tried to avoid being present at public events where a quorum of the board might inadvertently be present. She said the three versions of the amendments to the Citizen's Petition were all posted to the Planning Board's Google Docs page on the Town Hall website by the afternoon of May 2, more than 48 hours before the meeting, "so there was plenty of time for everyone to read and digest the three proposals."

Leja’s complaint, although containing one factual error, generally alleges that the trio have showed bias against a proposal by Waubeeka owner Michael Deep, who is seeking zoning changes to build a hotel of up to 120 rooms "units" (potentially multi-room suites) on up to 10 acres of the 207-acre golf course. At the same time, Leja’s complaint says they favored a proposal by Williams College for a zoning change to build a 60-100-inn hotel at the end of Spring Street. Leja terms the Waubeeka proposal “a competitor” to the Williams bid.

Both are slated for discussion and possible voting at the May 17 town meeting.

The factual error in Leja’s complaint: It states Gardner, McCallum and McGowan are all employed by Williams College. Gardner and McGowan both teach at the school; McCallum has taught there in the past. Leja’s complaint also notes that the same three members voted to recommend voters approve the Williams-sought zoning change. However, it did not mention the vote was unanimous, 5-0 and was taken after the board invoked a state-sanctioned “rule of necessity” because of employment conflicts involving three of its five members – Gardner, McGowan and member Chris Winters, who also works at the college.

Updated at 10:48 p.m., 05-09-16, to include comment from Town Manager Jason Hocht

Updated at 8:04 a.m. on 05-10-16, to clarify that the Deep proposal is for 120 lodging "units" not rooms, and to include Leja comments reported by The Berkshire Eagle.

Updated at 8:25 a.m. to note votes by Selectmen and Finance Committee.

May 14, 2016

(Photo: Michael Deep poses on Wednesday at Waubeeka Golf Links, in front of a concept drawing of his "country inn" proposal)

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Amid an atmosphere of last-minute lobbying by Waubeeka Golf Links public owner Michael Deep, The Greylock Independent website, published by the non-profit Citizen Media Inc., published on Thursday a multi-question "unofficial voters guide" to a controversial issue that will face voters at the Williamstown Town Meeting next week.

Publication of the neutral-point-of-view voters guide came amid these developments:

North Adams insurance broker and rental-property owner Michael Deep taped a 50-minute discussion about his 120-"unit" resort lodging proposal with Stanley Parese, his attorney. The program, viewable on Williamstown's public-access WiliNet channel, can also be viewed online (WATCH VIDEO). In the video, Parese runs through a description of the project, and Deep appears emotional at one point as he talks about his worry that a closing of the Waubeeka Golf Links could put 40 people out of jobs.

At least three Williamstown residents reported that they had been recipients of what appeared to them to be survey or polling telephone calls in which the callers asked questions about the Waubeeka proposal and then made assertions about it. One of recipients said her caller-ID showed the call came from a Chicopee-area phone number. When GreylockNews.com called the number, a voice message was heard to say: "Research call center .... is not available ... please leave a message after the tone." An email to Parese asking if his client was the source of any polling calls was not returned. One of the three phone-call recipients said: "I too received a call from someone who said she represented the Waubeeka golf club and asked whether I supported it: when I made clear that I didn't know enough about the issue at the time to know what my position was on it, and that I didn't want to be lobbied, she said that if I wanted to find out more about it (with a clear sense that that meant why it was a good idea), I could call at a number she recited, but which I didn't record. Since I have no relation to the club that would make me a good person to encourage, I imagine that others were likely contacted as well."

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – How big a hotel-and-golf complex could be developed at Waubeeka Golf Links if town-meeting voters next week take the advice of Williamstown selectmen?

One possible answer is: A resort 50 percent larger than the current Williams Inn. Another possible answer: Whatever a developer thinks can fit on 10 acres.

That’s because Monday’s 4-1 vote of the selectmen sided with Waubeeka owner Mike Deep’s desire not to have any square-footage limitation on his project buildings. The only restriction is a limitation of 120 “guest units” – which could be multiple rooms.

Deep’s attorney, Stanley Parese, declined at both meetings to suggest a square-foot measurement that his client would find acceptable. However, Parese already informed the town that a “concept” estimate would be 115,000 square feet, according to both Parese and town planner Andrew Groff, including: A hotel-restaurant of 102,000 square feet, and a golf clubhouse, pro shop, cart barn and maintenance building totaling another 13,000 square feet.

“Gross square feet” (GSF) refers to a sum of the usable space on all floors of a structure, not just the ground footprint. And it would of course include per-room hallway space, mechanical shafts, stairways, kitchens, meeting rooms, dining rooms, offices and the like.

Groff’s research for the Planning Board found the present 126-room Williams Inn has 70,491 GSF, or an average of 559 GSF per guest room. He found the 49-room Orchards Hotel has 51,346 GSF (1,048 per room average). The 195-guest-room Equinox resort and spa in Manchester, Vt., has 137,500 square feet of hotel and dining (705 per room average) and 28,000 GSF of golf clubhouse and overall maintenance. Finally, Groff found the 125-room Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge has 82,944 GSF (663 per room average) for its hotel and restaurants..

Averaging smallest GSF room sizes of the compared hotels yields a figure of 743 gross square feet, as potentially typical for a hotel with restaurant facilities. On that basis, a 120 “room” hotel and restaurant at Waubeeka would likely be at least 89,000 GSF.

A visit by GreylockNews.com to the Berkshire Mountain Lodge (the former Patriot Suites) on Dan Fox Drive in Pittsfield yielded additional information. Berkshire Mountain lodge is owned by the Berkley Group, the same Fort Lauderdale worldwide timeshare resort developer that owns Vacation Village at Jiminy Peak in Hancock.

Berkshire Mountain Lodge has 146 two-room suites averaging 900 square-feet per suite and records of the Pittsfield city assessors’ records give the gross square footage of the five-story building as 120,072 square feet. Each suite has a bedroom, a large bathroom and a living room with kitchen appliances installed at one end of the livingroom.

"Rooms, units" and "kitchens"

The language of both the selectmen-endorsed Waubeeka proposal sought by Deep and the planning-board endorsed proposal both define a “country inn” as a permitted use in the zoning overlay they would create. It is defined as “an establishment where overnight transient sleeping accommodations are provided to lodgers in one or more guest units without kitchens.” Nowhere do the proposal talk about “rooms.”

In addition, neither state building code or local rules appears to define the word “kitchen” leaving the meaning of that word to common assumptions Is an area of a room that has some appliances in it a “kitchen.”

Thus an all-suites lodge like the Berkshire Mountain Lodge timeshare structure in Pittsfield would be a permitted use under either proposal. It is considered general against the law (see North Carolina and Florida cases) to use zoning to regulate ownership, thus nothing in the proposals would prevent the use of a Waubeeka structure for multi-room timeshares.

Assuming 900 square feet per “guest unit” across 120 units, the Waubeeka hotel and dining facility could conceivably be 108,000 gross square feet over three floors, or about 36,000 GSF per floor. The Pittsfield timeshare development averages 24,014 GSF per floor.

Thus, a permitted all-suites hotel as would be typical of a timeshare development – something that is not restricted by any of the zoning proposals before town meeting on Tuesday – could have an estimated ground footprint 50% larger than the Berkshire Mountain Lodge.

Groff, the town planner, says an average single hotel room is about 500 GSF. That’s consistent with the Williams Inn figure. If a Waubeeka project were built to a room size more typical of The Equinox – considered a high-end resort – at about 700 GSF per room, that would entail an 84,000 GSF, three-story building, or about a 28,000 square-foot ground footprint – still about 16 percent larger on the ground than the Pittsfield timeshare – which is on 17 acres.

All of this is speculative, because both Deep nor his attorney have consistently declined to provide to GreylockNews any definitive figures, despite receiving a detailed email on May 9 from GreylockNews.com outlining a similar analysis to that give above. They say that, because Deep has no developer lined up yet and therefore no definitive plan, they would be speculating.

Instead, voters – and officials -- are speculating.

“I don’t know what the 120 rooms means in terms of square footage,” town resident Stephanie Boyd told selecmen at their Monday meeting. “There is not something we have been able to get answered.” Boyd erroneously referred to rooms, when both proposals speak of “guest units.”

Adding Andrew Hogeland, a selectman: “One-hundred and twenty units doesn’t mean anything terms of size to people . . . the Williams inn is about 120 units and Sweetwood is about 70 units but their sizes are very different . . . the concern about using units as the only unit of measurement is, nobody knows what that means.”

Hogeland, who lives in South Williamstown near Waubeeka, also said he thought the lack of a square-foot measurement would make it difficult for Deep’s zoning-change bid to pass. He said: “And at Town Meeting, which is the last time that the Town Meeting will have a say on how big this development is going to be – if they say how big it is going to be based on a number of units, which isn’t even a measurement, that’s going to be a big hurdle, I think, to get over.”